Friday, October 21, 2011

Passing out papersto nearly 25 students for each activity can add up to a lot of wasted teaching time. My students sit at 4 tables. In the center of each table, I have a plastic paper holder. I place colored manila folders inside the paper holder. Red folders hold phonics papers, blue holds math papers, green holds science papers, etc. I place just enough papers (plus 1 for the inevitable ripped or spilled on paper) for each student at the table in these folders.

The students have learned to manage the boxes themselves. They understand that when it is time for the phonics lesson, the Paper Manager opens the box, takes out the red folder, and passes the papers to their table mates. The red folder is then set back inside the paper holder on top of all the other folders. Once the phonics lesson is completed, the student slips their paper back inside the appropriate colored folder. The Paper Manager then takes the colored folder and slips it under all the other folders. I stack the colored folders in order that they will be used each day. At the end of the day, I collect the four boxes, grade my papers, and fill the folders with the next day's papers. This is also a great time saver in the event of a need for an emergency substitute teacher.